Harish Shankar was born in Malaysia and then moved to Germany. A pianist by training, Harish Shankar took piano lessons from the age of six before being accepted into the class of Professor Konstanze Eickhorst at the Conservatoire of Lübeck in Germany. Harish completed his master’s degree in conducting at the Conservatoire of Weimar in Germany under the tutelage of Professor Gunter Kahlert. As part of a Junior Fellowship in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, he also received valuable mentorship from Sir Mark Elder. He rounded off his studies with masterclasses under Paavo Järvi, Nicolás Pasquet and Mark Stringer.

A prize winner at the 6th International Jorma Panula Conducting Competition 2015, Harish became First Kapellmeister of the Staatstheater Meiningen in 2019 (Germany).

Previous appearances include the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Gärtnerplatztheater Munich et the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker.

Early studies with Eiji Oue led to an invitation to lead the orchestra of the award-winning El Sistema project in Peru. During his tenure with El Sistema, he conducted a number of regular and cross-over projects with the aim to engage a growing classical music scene and to bring together children from all walks of life through music.

In his free time Harish Shankar serves as an emergency pedagogue with the charitable association “Friends of Waldorf Education”, using music to help children in areas of conflict cope with trauma.